Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Review

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Pros

Pro

Gary Gygax's personal touch

Later editions were, to varying degrees, designed for market appeal; but the original AD&D is little more than one man sharing notes on his personal vision. It's tailored to his thematic tastes, and very often as much care is put into explaining the reasoning behind a rule as into defining the rule itself.

Cons

Con

Extremely high character mortality rate

In AD&D, the weakest enemies and traps are frequently lethal to low-level characters. Players are well-advised to expect most characters to die early; modern roleplaying mainstays like pre-gameplay character backgrounds and planned development goals are simply a waste of time.

Con

Rules are a mess and make little sense

The DM guide is really good, but not for the rules it presents. With Unearthed Arcana things just broke down more and more and everything was sloppier and sloppier.